Indonesia wood based craftsmanship

The name Indonesia derives from the Latin Indus, meaning "India", and the Greek nesos, meaning "island".The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia.In 1850, George Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians — and, his preference, Malayunesians — for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago". In the same publication, a student of Earl's, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia. Instead, they used the terms Malay Archipelago (Maleische Archipel); the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlandsch Oost Indië), popularly Indië; the East (de Oost); and even Insulinde.Indonesia consists of 17,508 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. These are scattered over both sides of the equator. The five largest islands are Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo), New Guinea (shared with Papua New Guinea), and Sulawesi. Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on the islands of Borneo and Sebatik, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and East Timor on the island of Timor. Indonesia also shares borders with Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to the north and Australia to the south across narrow straits of water.

The flora of Indonesia consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with a tropical climate and around 18,000 islands, Indonesia is a nation with the second largest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and the native species. This is due to the geography of Indonesia, located between two continents.

There are about 28,000 species of flowering plants in Indonesia, consisting 2500 different kinds of orchids, 6000 traditional medicinal plants used as Jamu., 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of Dipterocarpus, including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood.

These widely available wood (Dipterocarpus) has benefited the traditional handy craftsman in producing interesting wood craft from carving to painting (batik) method.

I would like to focus on wood painting or batik painting on the carving wood i.e mask, puppet, traditional toys etc. These type of craftsmanship came from various angle in Indonesia take for example Jogjakarta and even Bali as one of well known vacation hot spot in Indonesia, has it own wood craft however the item focusing mainly on lady accessories i.e. ear ring, necklaces, bangle and other small souvenir i.e. key chain, door sign, pen holder and many more.



These wood based craft easily attract by passer tourist and almost everybody who love colorful wood based craft as home of office decoration or personal casual accessories.

These wood based painted handicraft could be easily found in any shopping complexes, exhibitions or the most conveniences ever nowadays shopping method, via internet.

below are 2 URL that offers Indonesian painted wood handicraft and more that you should consider :-)


http://bakulmungil.multiply.com (Indonesian language)
Contact Sisca : Phone +62 21 7026 1153
email : bakul_mungil@yahoo.com
YM : sisca_i28@yahoo.com

http://craftunited.multiply.com (English language)
Contact Ameer : Phone +62 812 111 2601
email : craft_united@yahoo.com
YM : wind_oc@yahoo.com
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